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Star Trek Online Free to Play |OT| Boldly freeloading where others have subbed before

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
Just a random screenshot:

screenshot_2014-05-19-20-46-21_zps17db1d3a.jpg~original
 

Walshicus

Member
I've been on a recruitment spree for the KDF side lately. Most of the new guys are fairly low level and haven't got anything to contribute to projects, but I was *very* happy to see a "Corvin@valenja" jump to 15,000 credits in seconds after joining.
 

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
Just thought I'd post some helpful tips on how I typically do my DOFFing. Results may vary, especially after the new system is implemented in Season 9.5 (particularly with that heinously bad interface nearly universally hated by Tribble testers) but I've found it to be pretty good for farming.

Specifically, one of my main goals is to visit several cluster/nebulae (which will technically be rendered obsolete in 9.5, but their assignments should still exist) in order to queue up some extremely good assignments for CXP. First though, there are some things you kind of need to maximize the effectiveness of this type of run. Most important are the DOFFs themselves, several types of which can be farmed in perpetuity once you've completed the colonial chains in specific clusters. The "Support Colonization Efforts in X" assignment is repeatable, and critical success nets you a unique but not really unique DOFF.

Astrometrics - Hromi (Pi Canis) - Good for Establish Listening Post.
Technician - B'tran (Gamma Orionis) - Good for Establish Listening Post. Also good if you run an Aux2Bat setup.
Doctor - Delta Volanis (Sirius) - Better for Feds, a two-trait DOFF for farming Support assignments. The more of her you have, the more Supports you can run simultaneously, and best of all, DV is practically right next door to Sol.
Shield Distribution - Rolor (Beta Ursae) - Good for Establish Military Base. Also great for KDFs with all their freighter disabling and raiding assignments. Also a prime two-trait Support for KDF.
Projectile Weapons - Khazan (Alpha Centauri) - Ditto the above.
Assault Squad - Betreka (Alpha Trianguli) - Good for Establish Military Base. Good for KDF assault assignments, and even better for the Suppress Gorn assignments.
Tractor Beam - Arucanis (Regulus) - Mainly for KDFs, good for disable freighter assignments.

As noted in their individual sections, you'll want tons of the Fed doctors or KDF shield dist/projectile weapon DOFFs, as you can then keep using those ones to farm more of all the rest.

Some of the most valuable assignment for CXP are as follows:

Establish Listening Post in X - With all purple DOFFs, this assignment will get you over 2.5k CXP each in engineering, espionage and colonial. Even a regular success gives a respectable amount. If in a cluster, always check your Ops department head in case you don't see it in your regular list.
Establish Military Base in X - All purples gives you over 4k each in engineering and colonial on crit. Check your Ops DH.
Suppress Gorn Uprising on X - Only available for KDF, mostly occur in Eta Eridani. Always check your tactical department head as well, as additional instances may occur there. All purples will give you over 9k in military on crit. Check your Tactical DH.
Provide Shore Leave Services - The motherlode of CXP. Occurs only in the Solenae Dyson Sphere. Has a cooldown of about 24 hours from completion. An all purple crit is over 24k to development.

Valuable contraband farming assignments:

Inspect Civilian Freighter - Can get you 5 contraband on crit. Available to both sides. The security DOFF from Tong is perfect for Feds, but oddly has a wrong trait for KDF. KDF can get a purple security officer from Instigate Defection that is perfect though. There's also Confiscate Contraband, but that one's crap. Even a crit typically gets you 2 at most, with some useless junk thrown in.
Disable X Freighter - KDF only. Contraband varies depending on species. Most will have just 1 on regular success. Ferengi have 5 on crit, while most others have 3, but I think Vulcans have none.
Raid on X - KDF only. Can occur almost anywhere. 5 contraband on crit.
Strike Against Fugitive Support Network - Requires completion of Facility 4028 assignment chain. 5 contraband and a blue or purple Dominion fugitive prisoner DOFF on crit. Can exchange the Dominion fugitives for a usable DOFF with the Exchange Dominion Prisoner assignment that occurs in Beta Ursae, Alpha Triangulis, Zeta Andromedae sector blocks.

Now for a good path through space. This flight plan doesn't account for any cooldown reductions you might have for transwarp, so it tries to make the fewest transwarps as possible (namely, one at most in each direction).

For Federation characters: Starting from ESD, I typically pick up a contraband turnover assignment, beam down to SFA, do the lore/history daily, then beam directly to the Sirius sector block. Picking up anything you find valuable along the way through this whole path, head south to Eta Eridani. In EE, stop over at the fleet starbase if you have any CXP trades to do, as well as if you do the dilithium mine dailies (our Fed fleet has direct transwarp, making it easier). Exit the starbase, and fly east to Omega Leonis. In OL, stop by as many clusters as you feel like, picking up any ELP or EMB as you might find. While not as important as the ones listed above, security officers from Tong are useful for the investigate civilian freighter and confiscate contraband assignments. After you've finished up in OL, head north to Pi Canis. Fly toward Tau Dewa, but make a stop in Hromi if you have a lot of slots left. In TD, fly straight for the sphere. Pick up your PSLS. That's where I usually stop for the day on that character.

The next day, I make the return trip. From TD, I instead go to Regulus, where I make a stop in Arucanis. Leaving there, I head back to EE again, and make a stop at the fleet starbase for CXP trades and mining. From there, I head back north to Sirius, making a stop at the Gamma Orionis transwarp gate. After entering GO, I fly straight for B'tran. After picking up whatever is good there, I'll use transwarp to ESD (pop back out to Sirius if you want to make a quick trip to DV), where I beam down to SFA for dailies, then back up to ESD to trade contraband, and thus repeats the cycle.

For KDF characters: Starting from First City, do your contraband trades and also turn over prisoners if you really have to (though you might save them for forced labor camps in the clusters as your success rate will be higher). Beam down to KDF Academy for dailies. Beam directly back up to OL and head west. I don't visit the clusters on the way out as it's a bit out of the way. In EE, visit the fleet starbase. (Our fleet is sadly behind, so no direct transwarp to mine or good mining dailies...yet.) Exit starbase, head north to Pi Canis, stopping in Hromi. Head north to TD, pick up PSLS at there Sphere. Head west to Regulus, then to Sirius. In Sirius, fly to the GO transwarp gate. The KDF is a bit bugged, so you'll have to stop in the Battlegroup Omega map before entering GO, but do so, then go straight for B'tran. From B'tran, transwarp to Beta Ursae. Go north to Rolor. If at this point you still have slots remaining, you can exit Rolor, fly south to Alpha Trianguli, then into Betreka. There you can break for the day.

The return trip the next day is basically a mirror trip, unlike the Fed side. However, flying through Regulus you might stop in Arucanis. There should be no need to stop in the Sphere unless you forgot to pick up PSLS the previous day. Once you get back to OL, then you can just hit each cluster as you like. Leave a slot open for contraband trade if you have enough.

Now these are just suggested routes. Obviously the Fed one doesn't take you into the Cardie triangle (BU/AT/ZA) so you can work that in as you like. If you like to do lots of STFs and the like, you can always just have those queued as you fly around.
 

Walshicus

Member
Great post, Woo.



I bought myself a Xindi Aquatic Carrier. Loving it, and the Frigate pets it launches.

Tempted to change weapon type on that character to Biomatter Phasers.
 

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
Unfortunately it seems like the new season has rendered much of my advice moot. As there are no actual clusters to enter, you can't check your DHs inside them, so all you get as far as assignment selection is whatever is available from the cluster menu. That means those really good assignments will be much more difficult to find. Until they figure out a way to reimplement filtering on doffs, it will be a pain to make sure you're not assigning substandard doffs to certain assignments.

Something I neglected to mention is that you don't always want a doff with a "Success" trait on certain assignments. If an assignment is a guaranteed success, but with a certain critical chance, you should always try to find a doff with critical traits before success traits. The success traits will figuratively poison your crit chance. For example, when doing the assignment on the starbase to trade in 10,000 CXP for fleet marks, assigning a doff with the success trait and two crit traits will result in a lower crit chance than the same rarity of doff with just the two crit traits. The same applies to many other assignments, which you will see when you look at their crit/success/fail/disaster rates. I believe ELP and EAMB also apply, but in those cases, half the doffs you need are required to be a certain class (a tech and astrometric for ELP, quartermaster for EAMB) while the rest are pretty much variable.
 

Walshicus

Member
Something I neglected to mention is that you don't always want a doff with a "Success" trait on certain assignments. If an assignment is a guaranteed success, but with a certain critical chance, you should always try to find a doff with critical traits before success traits. The success traits will figuratively poison your crit chance.

I seem to remember a Dev interview where they suggested they wanted to stop that behaviour. I guess they could just take out all the success traits for simple Success/Crit outcomes. Or perhaps have excess Success chance move into Crit?



EDIT: Oh, Dilithium weekend is coming up soon, so make sure you keep some of your Mining Claims if you've won any from a lockbox. They'll be worth 10,000 Ore a pop rather than 5,000.
 

Atruvius

Member
Is this game any good? I don't really like MMO's, the only exception being Eve Online which I like quite a lot. I have started getting into the world of Star Trek by watching TNG and TOS this spring and summer.
 

Walshicus

Member
Is this game any good? I don't really like MMO's, the only exception being Eve Online which I like quite a lot. I have started getting into the world of Star Trek by watching TNG and TOS this spring and summer.

It's free to try out! ;)

I enjoy it - the space combat is fun and I've even come to like the ground combat (though opinion varies there). It continues the Star Trek storyline as well if you're into that; for instance one mission series acts as a sequel to the DS9 episode Sacrifice of Angels, and the latest stuff takes place on a pair of Dyson Spheres one of which was the one seen in the TNG episode Relics.

If you give it a try, feel free to join the GAFleet - just post your character@account name here and we'll show you the ropes.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
I've been out of the news for the game for a while. Is there any plan to revamp the ground combat ever?

I might hop on and try to finish some more story missions soon. I finally hit max level so I have to get some better gear for all my shit
 

Walshicus

Member
When was the last time you played? Ground combat is generally a lot better than it was at launch now; they've added a number of Battlezone areas, such as the one in the Solonae Dyson Sphere against the Voth.

Were you playing when Legacy of Romulus was released? If not you can create a Romulan character and play through the best missions in the game by far. Also, some of the newer missions use the voice talent of the old cast, such as Michael Dorn, Denise Crosby and Tim Russ.
 
So, I have a question. I haven't played the game in a long ass time, the last time I actively played was around the time when they had released the Dominion story chapters. I logged in here and there since then, and even played the Romulan tutorial, but the massive amounts of lockboxed and timed content was getting on my nerves - whenever I check the STO website, I see a "look guys, a new lockbox!" or "look guys, we're revisiting an old lockbox!". I think I lost complete interest in the game shortly after the Ferengi lockbox, or maybe the Mirror lockbox. I don't remember quite exactly.

Has this gambling bullshit gone down by now, or is it still in place? Have they focused more on free content for more casual players (because the Romulan republic missions all seem to be geared towards minmaxing), rather than releasing purchasable ships and more lockboxes?

Also, I had a Klingon main, and I felt I had even less to do in that than on my Fed alt.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
When was the last time you played? Ground combat is generally a lot better than it was at launch now; they've added a number of Battlezone areas, such as the one in the Solonae Dyson Sphere against the Voth.

Were you playing when Legacy of Romulus was released? If not you can create a Romulan character and play through the best missions in the game by far. Also, some of the newer missions use the voice talent of the old cast, such as Michael Dorn, Denise Crosby and Tim Russ.

Yeah I was playing after legacy of Romulus. It was in February or march last I was playing a lot

The Dyson sphere just came out I think, but I didnt really want to get ahead of the storyline and play it. I want to get through all the other stuff first even if it takes forever :/
 

Walshicus

Member
Well they've been gradually remaking a lot of the launch content so the run should be a lot smoother. I'd say to hop in. Run through some missions, some queues and see what you can get by way of gear from the Fleet Starbase. There's still a fair chunk of us who play.
 
So, I have a question. I haven't played the game in a long ass time, the last time I actively played was around the time when they had released the Dominion story chapters. I logged in here and there since then, and even played the Romulan tutorial, but the massive amounts of lockboxed and timed content was getting on my nerves - whenever I check the STO website, I see a "look guys, a new lockbox!" or "look guys, we're revisiting an old lockbox!". I think I lost complete interest in the game shortly after the Ferengi lockbox, or maybe the Mirror lockbox. I don't remember quite exactly.

Has this gambling bullshit gone down by now, or is it still in place? Have they focused more on free content for more casual players (because the Romulan republic missions all seem to be geared towards minmaxing), rather than releasing purchasable ships and more lockboxes?

Also, I had a Klingon main, and I felt I had even less to do in that than on my Fed alt.

Lockboxes are completely optional and unneeded. And if you really want to go the free route with lockboxes it's entirely possible, just takes some effort. However you can get by completely fine without touching a single lockbox ever. And there are plenty of good ships that can be gotten for free, and technically everything can be gotten for free including the lockbox stuff. Getting a mirror universe ship is probably the cheapest route for anyone, can probably get it in the exchange for an entirely realistic budget (100k - 1m EC depending on ship and whatnot) and they're better than most stock ships. Although you did missout on getting a few good ships completely for free (event missions) it's still quite possible to run around with a mirror ship.

There is way more content for newer players and casual players, especially if you last played since the dominion story. You're looking at probably a 100% increase in things to do since that patch. (Dyson sphere being one of the single biggest content additions to the game)

It's up to you to stick around though, the lockboxes are still in the game but they really don't do much.

And if you're playing in the GAFleet, people can pretty much help you get geared up easily and on the cheap.
 

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
In yet another demonstration of their ability to make the wrong decision, it seems Cryptic is nerfing the ability to queue multiple research projects in the same school. Now you'll be forced to spend a minimum of at least 105 days to get to level 15, then 334 to 20. It seems to be little more than an unabashed cash-grab.
 

Walshicus

Member
Under 90 days with the near guaranteed crits of the research project.

I'm actually in favour of it. I don't want another reputation system that can be maxed in a month. There's not enough long term systems in the game.

3 months will get you four schools to 15. If you have a single alt that's enough to have every item craftable (since you get four slots prior to 15). Levels 16-20 are just gravy.
 
"The year 2410 also brings with it new technology. The Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Republic have been learning from the many foes they have faced, and have developed new series of starships, more powerful than ever before. These ships have new capabilities not seen before, including innovations in bridge officer seating. Briefings on these new vessels will be released in the coming weeks."

If new ships means a new ships tier for 60, I'm gonna have to saddle up and play again.
 

Walshicus

Member
Are each of the officers going to have their own ships now?

Nah, that may be coming in a future update but not scheduled for Delta Rising. Personally I'm not a big fan of commanding multiple ships. Trek's always been about the one Captain, one ship, one crew setup for me. I'd prefer the level wasn't tied to rank as well - not a fan of being an Admiral instead of a Captain.
 

Hellers

Member
I think I'll come back for a bit when the expansion launches. I've been spending a lot of time playing other stuff since I was last in STO but I do love me some space trek pew pew battles.

GAFFleet FTW
 

Walshicus

Member
Looks like the new BOFF class being added is "Intelligence":

http://iqfleet.org/private/leaks

This is the new "Intelligence Team" space power:
space_boff_intelligence_team.jpg


And how existing the Tactical, Science and Engineering powers look (some of the icons haven't been updated to their colour coded versions on the wiki yet):
Tactical_Team_icon_%28Federation%29.png
Science_Team_icon_%28Federation%29.png
Engineering_Team_icon_%28Federation%29.png



So Intelligence class uses purple as it's theme, and seems to be focused on enemy debuffs.
 
Looks like the new BOFF class being added is "Intelligence":

http://iqfleet.org/private/leaks

This is the new "Intelligence Team" space power:
space_boff_intelligence_team.jpg


And how existing the Tactical, Science and Engineering powers look (some of the icons haven't been updated to their colour coded versions on the wiki yet):
Tactical_Team_icon_%28Federation%29.png
Science_Team_icon_%28Federation%29.png
Engineering_Team_icon_%28Federation%29.png



So Intelligence class uses purple as it's theme, and seems to be focused on enemy debuffs.

That's pretty cool. But when you say enemy debuffs do you mean dealing with enemy debuffs on you or allies or putting debuffs ON enemies?

I also wonder if it could be expanded to include Captains. I'd either like to see more Captain types or more diversification of the current types.
 

Walshicus

Member
FYI, we reached a milestone on the Federation fleet starbase yesterday by getting the Science track up to the maximum 250,000 XP. This unlocks the Tier 5 Communication Array upgrade, which in turn will unlock the Tier 5 Starbase upgrade.

We're also pretty close to getting the Shipyard and the Fabrication Facility up to Tier 5.

So well done everyone!
 

Carcetti

Member
I kind of want to get back to the game and the new ships seem interesting but very bizarre. I have no idea if they're actually good ships or not.
 
I kind of want to get back to the game and the new ships seem interesting but very bizarre. I have no idea if they're actually good ships or not.

No clue if they're good since they're new and involve that new intelligence line of things

However it is always nice to start getting new sector blocks to explore and new episode entries. Need to work myself to lol 60 and upgrade my gear
 

Armaros

Member
My Recluse is so much tankier from th t5-u upgrade and mastery; it's pretty crazy. (Also 3 tac console yay)

But apparently the new elite is extremely hard. Damage intake is about X3, npc health is through the roof. (500k health spheres) etc.

About the new ships, people I know have been saying really good things about the Eclipse. Tac/Engie-Intelligence cruiser and the consol power looks worth the slot, tank knees and damage in one spot.

The dauntless trait looks insane, basiclly a 25% boost to all hull heals but as a HOT.
 
Hooboy. That conflict between the
Vaadwaur
and the
Kobali
. First off the way the
Vaadwaur
are introduced is great. Watching the
Voth just get wrecked was amazing and then the reveal that it's the Vaadwaur is a bit of a surprise considering where they were last we saw them.

But I have to say that I'm on the side of the
Vaadwaur
in this conflict.
The Kobali are essentially holding Vaadwaur hostage to turn into more of themselves. The Vaadwaur have every right to fight to reclaim their people and I don't see why the Federation is on the Kobali side. We're told we can't interfere on the issue of what the Kobali are doing because of the Prime Directive but I call horseshit. It's one race interfering with another which is not a Prime Directive situation. Even then, we could just withhold support and let the Kobali fold to the Vaadwaur.

I am enjoying myself though.
 
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